


Until You Hear It

by TheMulletWhisperer



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Character Death, F/F, Far Harbor, Goodbyes, Grief/Mourning, Sad, Sad Ending, What Is Wrong With ME
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 08:23:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7525462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMulletWhisperer/pseuds/TheMulletWhisperer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"They say no matter how far you walk, death is always a matter of steps behind - and once you stop, death keeps on walking until you hear it. Even if your feet tire, even if you think nobody could possibly end you after all this time - after so long, someone who never knew you, never knew what you did will come for you in the end."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Until You Hear It

**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea from all them super mutants in the Vim! Pop Factory in the quest "The Way Things Should Be" off the Far Harbor DLC. Yes, this is -incredibly- sad and I am so sorry, the game made me.

Alexandra kicked in the double doors leading into the  _ Vim _ ! Factory, the light from her combat helmet illuminating the dark interior. Before the blood and the gore, the first thing Piper noticed was the overwhelming stench of death inside, coupled with the unmistakable smell of radioactive waste. From everywhere, body parts hung, bits of something that was likely a human were crammed into crude net bags, and the floors glistened with fresh blood.

All the hallmarks of a Super Mutant infestation.

Travelling with a Sentinel of the Brotherhood meant Piper had her fair share of contact with the Muties, by now, fighting the green bastards had become less of a real fight and more of a day job. If they were carrying bombs, shoot the bomb and watch the entire group go down in a radioactive blaze. Otherwise, just keep putting slugs right through those thick skulls of theirs until they dropped. 

_ “Shouldn’t be complaining, at least it’s not those weird fog things.”  _ Piper thought to herself, pistol drawn as she followed Alex deeper into the factory, making damn sure to keep sharp. Which was a challenge...that damn Brotherhood jumpsuit was so tight.

Catching herself staring again, she shook her head and turned her attention back to the situation in front of them. By now, the two had come to a crossroads in the path head, one to the right, the other to the left. As-per the procedure, Alexandra pointed left, “I’ll go this way. You take right and I’ll meet you at DiMA’s medlab.”

Piper gave a smile that masked the nerves that sprang up every time the two of them split up like this, especially in a place so dangerous. Regardless, she kept a cheery tone to her voice, “You got it, Blue. Stay safe for me.”

Alexandra bit back a smile, Piper could always tell when she was. Underneath that tough, Brotherhood exterior, the reporter knew she was extremely caring. 

As her companion took the left path, Piper watched after her for a moment before breaking right, chambering a round in her 10mm and heading down the industrial corridor. 

From somewhere behind her, she could already hear the firing off of a laser rifle, coupled with the howl of the mutants’ hounds and their firearms pumping out lead. Just as quickly as it started, it ended, like always with these fights. 

Strangely enough, Piper seemed to be meeting no resistance as she stalked through the corridors, checking her corners closely as she passed each empty prefab, acutely wary of an ambush. Judging by the sounds of gunfire, Alex was taking the brunt of the force, but that was never something she couldn’t handle, even on her own. 

However, this assumption was cut off quickly as she passed a room without checking it--a dire mistake. The deep laughter of a super mutant echoed from somewhere inside the office, accompanied shortly by a shrill beeping sound and a flashing red light from the door.

Without enough time to react, Piper backpedaled and waited for line of sight, which came quickly enough. As did a bad decision. With her instincts against the suicidal mutants, she fired off a round directly towards the armed mini-nuke the moment it came into sight, detonating it mere feet from her. 

Immediately, the corridor collapsed and she was thrown back against the wall, her leather coat tearing in several places. As her head collided with the steel panelling, her vision went black.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

_ “Fuck fuck  _ **_fuck_ ** _!”  _ Alexandra screamed in her head as yet another fusion cell fell from her rifle, spent and just about ready to explode. She didn’t know how long she had been pinned, or how many mutants were opening fire on her, but judging by the state of the walls near her cover, she could venture a guess towards the “too many to handle” side of the spectrum.

With only three fusions cells left and no idea how much charge was left in them, she had taken to tossing out her grenades. And yet, with every single explosion and scattering of debris, more mutants seemed to come. 

There was only one thing left to do, probably the most stupid thing she would ever do. Unclasping the reinforced bag at her hip, she pulled out a fusion core, which she promptly slammed as hard as she could against the side of the barrier she’d placed between herself and the mutants. Instantly, the core began heating to dangerous levels and emitting a green static. She stood to toss it, however, as it left her hand and began sailing through the air, she felt a sharp pain in her arm, followed by a series of them in her chest and gut. 

Alexandra wasn’t entirely sure how many bullets she’d taken, all she knew is that, by the time that the core detonated and the room cleared out, that she’d ended up slumped against a wall and she could see the blood pooling around her.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Piper groaned and lifted her head up. Somehow, she’d ended up on the production floor of the factory amidst the debris and gore from the aftermath of the corridor showdown. Luckily enough for her, none of the gore had come from her body, and aside from a nasty headache, she seemed to be just fine.

Once she’d assessed her own state, she noticed that the gunfire had stopped. Figuring that her girl had finished the fight, she grabbed her hat from the floor next to her, pulled it on her head, and struggled up to her feet.

Although it felt a bit awkward to stand at first, she quickly regained her wits and headed further among the abandoned _Vim!_ production vats. All around her, she saw and admired Alex’s handiwork, a multitude of dead mutants in various states of dismemberment lay scattered all around her, just as every other fight ended with them. 

Though, as she rounded the corner, she could tell something was off. The door to the medlab was closed, the terminal was shot, and her companion wasn’t anywhere to be found. At first glance, at least. 

Her sight tracked down to Alex, who lay against the wall just next to the security gate, lying in a puddle of blood with spent fusion cells scattered around her. 

_ “No. No no no.”  _ All thoughts of victory flew from Piper’s mind as she rushed to her lover’s side, who seemed to still be miraculously conscious. 

“Blue! Blue, hold on, hold on we’ll..”

“P-Piper.” Alex coughed out her words amidst a spray of blood from her mouth.

“No, shut up, we’ll--we’ll get you back to Far Harbor, Doc Wright will patch you up and--”

“I’m..n-n…”

“SHUT UP BLUE! You have some stimpaks around here, right? Med-X, SOMETHING!” Desperation crept into her voice as she began to panic and tears prickled at the corners of her eyes.

“I...I..l-love..you, Piper.” Alexandra turned her misty, steel-gray eyes up to the woman next to her, full of tears yet unable to muster the energy to shed them.

Her words hit the journalist like a ton of bricks. “I..Blue.” Her voice cracked and she began to choke up, lifting her fingers and running them down Alex’s cheek. 

The Sentinel began to feel her eyelids growing heavy and she tilted her head up to look at Piper one more time. “I’ll..meet you in the bar.” With those last few words, she shut her eyes and let herself slip away.

As Alex’s head sagged to the side, Piper knew that’d been the end. With the full weight of the situation settling on her, she broke down and buried her face in Blue’s sleeve, sobbing openly as she hugged the body close, never wanting to let go.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“Something coming through the fog!” The Mariner picked up her rifle and aimed it towards the movement she saw beyond the Condensers. From afar, what she could make out was shaped oddly, but as it drew closer she could make out the figure. It was a human. Two humans, to be precise, one carrying the other.

As the two approached closer, she could make out more clearly the figures through the blue glow of the fog condensers. One was unmistakably dead, covered in blood, pale and limp, while the other seemed far beyond upset. Her eyes were stained with tears that cut through the grime on her face, and the head of a synth hung at her hip. One synth, one that could not be mistaken for anyone.

DiMA.

The synthetic’s head had seemingly been ripped right off, with the wires still attached to the joints of the neck. 

The Mariner took the stairway down to meet whomever had been approaching when all at once, realization dawned on her at the sight of their faces. One of them, the Legend of Far Harbor, the one who had performed the Captain’s Dance. The Mainlander was dead, and the other, Piper, as she’d recalled her name being, was carrying the body. Although several people, including Avery, tried to stop the journalist, she simply pushed them away and continued walking through the town, all the way to the boat without a single word.

Each step, the Mariner followed until she couldn’t anymore, as Piper gunned the engine on the boat and sailed away, the body of the mainlander still held tightly in her arms.


End file.
